Tag Archives: barge

Sinn Féin and the Heritage Boat Association

Posted on Friday 24 May 2013 | 2 comments

KildareStreet again: a Dáil written answer from Wednesday 22 May 2013.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh [SF, Dublin South Central]: 273. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the fact that Waterways Ireland has decided to suspend the much-needed dredging works on the Grand Canal with only one section left to be completed and that that section of canal is shallowest due to years of silt and years of dumping and that this impacts on barges trying to traverse the canal, the delay in recommencing the dredging could seriously impact on plans by Dublin City Council to install a cycle track from Bluebell to Harold’s Cross, due to heavy equipment for any future dredging works having to locate on the northside of the canal where the cycle track would be,as the LUAS is on the other side; if he will ensure that funding for the dredging project to recommence works urgently be made available for Waterways Ireland. [24714/13]

Alan Kelly [Labour, Tipperary North]: I am not aware of a decision by Waterways Ireland to suspend dredging works on the Grand Canal. As you know, Waterways Ireland are a state agency under the agency of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. However, responsibility for the management of funding programmes related to the development of cycling infrastructure in the Greater Dublin Area rests with the National Transport Authority (NTA). Accordingly, to be of assistance, I have referred this question to the NTA for direct reply to the Deputy. Please contact my private office if a reply has not been received within ten working days.

I have been told that Waterways Ireland has issued no new dredging tenders this year; perhaps it’s saving up for the Cavan and Monaghan sheughs. However, I can’t check: Waterways Ireland isn’t showing tenders on its new website, sending the curious instead to a Eurosite that I can’t persuade to tell me anything interesting. Any difficulty for barges should make itself apparent shortly.

 

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, waterways, Waterways management

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You are changing/said death to the maiden …

Posted on Wednesday 22 May 2013 | Leave a comment

… your wan face
To memory, to beauty.

Thus Kathleen Raine, but not the list of licensed marked fuel traders [.xls] along the Shannon.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Irish waterways general, Operations, Politics, Shannon, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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No change though you lie under …

Posted on Friday 17 May 2013 | Leave a comment

… the land you used to plough, in your ruddy great tractor running on cheap diesel. No change either in the number of licensed sellers of said diesel [PDF] along the Shannon.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, Politics, Shannon, Sources, Tourism, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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A trip through the Butterley Tunnel

Posted on Wednesday 15 May 2013 | 3 comments

I have recently been sent links to explorations of the Butterley Tunnel on the Cromford Canal, whose Friends are here with a map here and the first of the explorations here. The second exploration [don’t try this at home, kids] is described rather more extensively in this PDF.

Coincidentally, I found that Joseph Tatlow paid a brief visit to the canal in about 1869:

After about eighteen months of office work I had a long and serious illness and was away from duty for nearly half a year. The latter part of the time I spent in the Erewash Valley, at the house of an uncle who lived near Pye Bridge. I was then under eighteen, growing fast, and when convalescing the country life and country air did me lasting good. Though a colliery district the valley is not devoid of rural beauty; to me it was pelasant and attractive and I wandered about at will.

One day I had a curious experience. In my walk I came across the Cromford Canal where it enters a tunnel that burrows beneath coal mines. At the entrance to the tunnel a canal barge lay. The bargees asked would I like to go through with them? “How long is it?” said I, and “how long will it take?” “Not long,” said bargee, “come on!” “Right!” said I.

The tunnel just fitted the barge, scarcely an inch to spare; the roof was so low that a man lying on his back on a plank placed athwart the vessel, with his feet against the roof, propelled the boat along. This was the only means of transit and our progress was slow and dreary. It was a journey of Cimmerian darkness; along a stream fit for Charon’s boat. About halfway a halt was made for dinner, but I had none. Although I was cold and hungry the bargees’ hospitality did not include a share of their bread and cheese but they gave me a drink of their beer.

The tunnel is two miles long, and was drippingly wet. Several hours passed before we emerged, not into sunshine but into the open, under a clouded sky and heavy rain which had succeeded a bright forenoon. I was nearly five miles from my uncle’s house, lightly clad, hungry and tired. To my friends ever since I have not failed to recommend the passage of the Butterley tunnel as a desirable pleasure excursion.

Joseph Tatlow Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland The Railway Gazette, London 1920

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Operations, Restoration and rebuilding, waterways

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A picnic on the Barrow in 1896

Posted on Wednesday 15 May 2013 | 1 comment

[…] I recall a little arbitration case in which I was engaged. It was during the summer, in July I think. The Grand Canal (not the canal which belongs to the Midland and is called the Royal) is a waterway which traverses 340 miles of country. Not that it is all canal proper, some of it being canalised river and loughs; but 154 miles are canal pure and simple, the undisputed property of the Grand Canal Company. On a part of the river Barrow which is canalised, an accident happened, and a trader’s barge was sunk and goods seriously damaged. Dispute arose as to liability, and I was called on to arbitrate. To view the scene of the disaster was a pleasant necessity, and the then manager of the company (Mr Kirkland) suggested making a sort of picnic of the occasion; so one morning we left the train at Carlow, from whence a good stout horse towed, at a steady trot, a comfortable boat for twenty miles or so to the locus of the accident. We were a party of four, not to mention the hamper. It was delightfully wooded scenery through which we passed, and a snug little spot where we lunched. After lunch and the arbitration proceedings had been dispatches, our pegasus towed us back.

Joseph Tatlow Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland The Railway Gazette, London 1920

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Rail, Scenery, Sources, waterways, Waterways management

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Funding the Sheugh

Posted on Sunday 12 May 2013 | 1 comment

The Sunday newspaper read by the better class of person tells us today [paywalled]:

Coalition frees up cash for construction

The government has signalled that it intends to spend more money next year on building projects in a bid to use spare cash, including savings from the promissory note deal, to stimulate the economy and promote job creation.

The Department of Public Expenditure has written to other government departments asking them to submit lists of capital projects in addition to what has already been planned.

The projects selected are likely to include housing, retro-fitting of housing stock, schools, local roads, primary care centres and other health facilities and it is hoped to boost job creation, especially in the decimated construction sector. It is likely that preference will be given to “shovel-ready” projects that can be progressed to the tender stage almost immediately.

I suppose it’s a change from piers and seed potatoes and other famine relief works. I wonder what the Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht will be digging out of its bottom drawer.

53 Percy Place, Dublin

53 Percy Place, Dublin

And I wonder whether 53 Percy Place, which was to be sold, and was expected to raise €1 600 000 for the Clones Sheugh, will still be in WI’s hands in a year or two.

 

 

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, The turf trade, Ulster Canal, waterways, Waterways management

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Swinging moorings

Posted on Sunday 12 May 2013 | 1 comment

If you own either of these boats, you might like to check your mooring lines.

Barrow Otter between the aqueducts

Barrow Otter between the aqueducts

Small boat at Robertstown_resize

Small boat between the Robertstown slipway and Lowtown

Incidentally, the roadway between Robertstown and Lowtown is in dreadful condition.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Scenery, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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South Dublin

Posted on Sunday 12 May 2013 | 2 comments
Use a little wine for thy stomach's sake

The wine fleet

Incidentally, after visiting the dangerous shores of south Dublin, through the soulless canyons of lawyers’, accountants’ and tax-dodgers’ offices, I am led to wonder whether latte is Bucky for the bourgeoisie. What a ghastly place the area round the Grand Canal Dock has become.

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, People, Politics, Steamers, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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Royal Canal, Dublin

Posted on Wednesday 1 May 2013 | 5 comments

Some superb pics here, by Conor Nolan, of converted working boats on the final descent into Dublin on the recently reopened Royal Canal.

 

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Posted in Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding, Scenery, waterways, Waterways management

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Socialists, boat-owners and taxpayers

Posted on Friday 26 April 2013 | 3 comments

According to the wonderful KildareStreet.com, on 25 April 2013 Jimmy Deenihan, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht [FG Kerry North/West Limerick] and prominent supporter of the Lartigue monorail, answered two written questions by Clare Daly [Socialist, Dublin North]:

31. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will ensure that Waterways Ireland will respect the rights of citizens who have lived on residential barges in Lowtown, County Kildare, for more than a decade. [19163/13]

38. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the dealings he has had with Waterways Ireland in relation to the Lowtown Marina, County Kildare, with particular reference to safeguarding the homes of boat dwellers who have resided there for more than a decade. [19164/13]

Jimmy Deenihan gave no ground:

I propose to take Questions Nos. 31 and 38 together.

As the Deputy will appreciate, the issues referred to relate to operational day to day matters for Waterways Ireland, for which I have no direct responsibility. However, the Deputy can be assured that Waterways Ireland respects the rights of all users of the navigations under its remit. I am advised by Waterways Ireland that it has carried out significant improvements in the Lowtown area over the last number of years. A new amenity block, including toilets and showers, has been provided, as well as new moorings and other facilities. Some of the moorings at Lowtown have access to electricity, water and lighting and Waterways Ireland would encourage all boat permit holders in the area to avail of these facilities. Boat dwellers can be accommodated on the new moorings under an Extended Mooring Permit.

Waterways Ireland has also endeavoured to regularise the ownership and lease arrangements at Lowtown Marina and it continues to work closely with the owners of the adjacent boat yard in that regard. I am informed that unsafe moorings currently in place there have to be removed, for health and safety reasons.

I am advised that throughout this period when works were planned and underway, Waterways Ireland communicated updates on developments by letter to all permit holders, including barge dwellers, with regard to mooring locations and extended mooring permits. It also responded to queries from a number of individual barge dwellers by email, letter, phone and onsite meetings. In addition, press releases were issued to local media. This approach to communicating with stakeholders will continue.

It would be interesting to know what rights Clare Daly thinks might be infringed, what obligation the taxpayer is assumed to have towards boat dwellers, how much the boat dwellers are paying to the taxpayer and what proportion of the costs of the waterways those users are covering. My own view is that the taxpayer is not obliged to subsidise boat-owners, and that a rational taxpayer might choose to devote resources to some other end, but then I never have understood socialism, save as explained by P G Wodehouse’s Psmyth in Mike:

I am with you, Comrade Jackson. You won’t mind my calling you Comrade, will you? I’ve just become a Socialist. It’s a great scheme. You ought to be one. You work for the equal distribution of property, and start by collaring all you can and sitting on it.

 

 

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Posted in Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Politics, Restoration and rebuilding, Sources, Steamers, The cattle trade, waterways, Waterways management

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